Tiny touch of art

Kirsten Williams

Sunday

Oct 22, 2017 at 12:01 AM

Down Olive Street in south Eugene, a small wooden box on a post contains a Tiny Art Gallery. Just bigger than a mailbox, it can easily be overlooked, but behind its drop-front door the gallery has brought the neighborhood together with a new type of art sharing.

It is a miniature community gallery, showcasing the work of neighbors and anonymous artists. Supplies for others to make their own pieces are provided, and the art is meant to be shared.

David Diethelm, a local artist and publisher, came up with the idea for the project in January. After buying the gallery box online and having a custom post made by a neighbor, the gallery was stocked and opened on Easter Sunday. The Olive Street gallery has since displayed more than 50 works.

Diethelm’s gallery provides miniature canvases, easels, paintbrushes and paints. It ultimately serves as a space to showcase work after it has been completed. Participants also are welcome to take art home with them, display it and return it after they are done. It’s a similar concept to Little Free Libraries in that participation is voluntary and just meant to be enjoyed by those who are interested.

The gallery has displayed ceramic pieces, acrylic and water color paintings, pencil drawings and even a mobile.

The gallery has a very subtle design. Diethelm said most people only know what it is if they have been told or if they had the courage to peek inside.

While he didn’t design it to be this way, Diethelm said “the whole thing is kind of a social experiment.”

Will neighbors look inside? Will anyone participate? Will it be vandalized?

Diethelm’s tiny gallery is on a dead-end road that doesn’t get a lot of traffic, which may be helping the success of the gallery. The neighborhood is able to enjoy it without too much foot traffic increasing its chances of being vandalized.

Diethelm gave himself a $300 budget for creation and stocking of the gallery, keeping in mind that supplies will be used and he will have to restock.

“(The artist) has to be willing to have (their) art borrowed by people and potentially never returned, so nothing too precious,” Diethelm said about participating.

Diethelm encourages people who take the art home to take a picture of the work being displayed and email it to him. All of the pictures are on his website, TinyArtGallery.org, and have been compiled into a book that will be locally published in mid-November through Eco-Justice Press, Diethelm’s publishing company. The book not only includes the gallery’s works but also how to start your own Tiny Art Gallery and the principles behind the project.

Diethelm said the project allowed him to connect more with other artists.

“I get to meet people that I wouldn’t normally meet in the neighborhood,” he said.

Diethelm’s gallery has inspired another, just two blocks from the original, and Diethelm hopes that there will be more.

Diethelm says the gallery is for anyone — not just those that consider themselves to be artists. One of his favorite works so far is a canvas finger painting by a 2-year-old who lives down the street.

“It’s one of those (pieces), like Picasso’s, trying to go back to the childhood artist,” Diethelm said, “but he’s a 2-year-old. He is a child.”